Crank Yankers returns with many one-sided prank calls and its mentally disabled puppet gone

The A.V. Club

Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla's prank call series, which originally aired from 2002 to 2005, returns tonight on Comedy Central without Special Ed, the puppet prank caller voiced by comedian Jim Florentine who once famously joined Eminem on stage at the VMAs. “That character could never have come out today,” Florentine told Paste magazine in 2017. The new Crank Yankers, says Josh Modell, leaves "the burden on the voice actors, who essentially deliver one-sided, largely improvised bits that are then brought to life by puppets. This time around, there are funny premises that don’t work all that well in practice, as when Natasha Leggero’s character calls her stepson’s school but can’t remember his name. There are stupid premises saved by the caller, as when Tracy Morgan (as his recurring character, Spoonie Luv) calls the park service to complain that birds are shitting on him while he’s trying to have sex in a public park. And there are hacky premises hackily delivered, as when Jimmy Kimmel’s Elmer character—an incontinent old man—calls to thank the adult-diaper company for making him so comfortable. That one is so weak that it relies mostly on visual jokes with the puppets for some relief." ALSO: How the hell do you make a prank call in 2019?